INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: THE CONTRIBUTION OF UNDP IN CROSS RIVER STATE, SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIA

Despite the increasing proliferation of international governmental organisations claiming to be contributing to social, economic, and political development of the developing world, their actual achievements in poor countries are yet to be well understood. This paper examines the contribution of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to community development in Cross River State, described as an economically backward region presenting prolonged and enormous poverty and development challenges in Nigeria. We show that although the UNDP provided community infrastructural services in 14 communities and supported the institutionalisation of economic empowerment and development strategising in conformity with expectations of the Federal Government of Nigeria, we conclude that the contribution was rather discriminatory and restricted to a few communities and too brief to be effectively scaled up to other poor communities.